Lybia

Lybia was a Berber nation which dwelled in the lands from Cape Spartel to the south of Tangier (present-day Morocco) in the west to the Nile in the east. During the 13th century BC, Lybia was a land of wonderful richness inhabited by light-skinned North Africans, and no shepherd ever went short of milk, meat, or cheese; in Greek mythology, it was home of the "Lotus-eaters". Lybia was later colonized by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, the Greeks of Cyrene during the 630s BC, the Achaemenid Persians, the Macedonian army of Alexander the Great, Ptolemaic Egypt, the Roman Empire, the Vandals, and the Byzantine Empire. During the Roman era, the Lybian tribes included the Nasamones, Garamantians, Mauri, and Gaetuli. After the Muslim conquest of the 8th century AD, the Lybian Berbers were gradually assimilated into the Arab culture. Today, the Muslim North African country of Libya is named for Lybia.